E Is for Evidence - Sue Grafton [17]
"I seem to remember that. Your father must have had conniption fits."
"Oh, he did. You know how straight he was. Daddy had real strong ideas about parenting, but most of them were wrong. He had no idea how to implement them anyway. He wanted to control and mold and dominate but he couldn't even do that very well. Kids just don't behave like company employees. Daddy thought he'd have more control at home, but the truth was, he had less. Both Lance and Bass were determined to thwart him. Bass never has straightened out."
"He's still in New York?"
"Oh, he comes home now and then-he was here for a week at Thanksgiving-but for the most part, he's gone. New .York, Boston, London. He spent a year in Italy and swears he's going back. Much as I love him, he's a waste of time. I don't think he's ever going to get his act together. Of course, Lance was that way for years. They're both smart enough, but they always partied hard and Lance had a few scrapes with the law. It drove Daddy up the wall."
The clams arrived. Each of us was presented with a plate piled high with small, perfect shells, swaddled in cloth to keep the broth piping hot. She speared a tender button of clam flesh and placed it on her tongue, her eyes closing in a near-swoon as she swallowed. I watched her butter a crescent of French bread and dip it in the bowl, sopping up clam liquor. As she bit into it, she made a little sound low in her throat like something out of an X-rated video.
"Your lunch okay?" I asked dryly.
"Fine," she said. "Good." She realized belatedly that I was teasing her and she smiled, her cheeks tinted becom-ingly with pink. "Someone asked me once which I'd rather have-sex or a warm chocolate-chip cookie. I still can't decide."
"Go for the cookies. You can bake 'em yourself."
She wiped her mouth and took a sip of wine. "Anyway, about the last six or seven years, Lance took hold, more or less, and started showing an interest in the business. Daddy was thrilled. Wood/Warren was Daddy's life. He loved us, but he couldn't manage us the way he did the business. By the time Bass came along, the last in line, Daddy'd pretty much given up any hopes for a successor."
"What about Ebony?"
"Oh, she's been passionate about the company since she was a kid, but she didn't believe Daddy'd ever let her have a hand in it. He was old-fashioned. A man leaves his business to his oldest son. Period. He knew Ebony was smart, but he didn't think she was tough enough, and he-didn't think she'd stay with it. Women get married and have babies and spend money. That was his attitude. Women join the country club and play tennis and golf. They don't go head-to-head with chemical engineers and systems analysts. She even went off to Cal Poly and started working on an engineering degree, but Daddy made it clear it wouldn't help her cause, so she went to Europe and got married instead."
"Thus fulfilling his prophecy," I said.
"That's right. Of course, at that point, Daddy did a turnaround and swore he'd have left her the company if she'd stuck it out. She hated him for that, and I didn't blame her a bit. He was a real shit sometimes." "She's back now, isn't she?"
"Right. She got home in August, minus Julian, which is no big loss. He was a dud if I ever saw one. A real bore. I don't know how she put up with him."
"Lance says she wants to take over."
"I've heard that, too, though it's not anything she talks to me about. I get along with Ebony, but we're not real close."
"What about Olive? Is she interested?"
"Peripherally, I guess. She married one of the chemi-cal engineers who worked for Daddy. He's vice-president now, but they met when she was still in college and he'd just hired on."
"Is that Terry Kohler?"
She nodded. "You met him?"
"When I was out there. What's he like?"
"Oh, I don't know. Smart. Moody. Intense. Pleasant enough, but sort of humorless. Good at what he does. Crazy about her, I must say. He worships the ground she walks on. 'Slavish' is the word.""
"Lucky girl. Is he ambitious?"
"He used